Yesterday, I shared on Facebook a web story from the Rachel Maddow Show about the recent rule change in the Democratically-dominated Senate.
(http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/dems-execute-nuclear-option)
It elicited a few comments, as might be expected. While I was grateful for the general civility in the tone of those comments, I couldn't help noticing the uneasily-restrained tension in most of them. After quoting from the Maddow Show post, I went on to respond this way:
'I have little respect for Senator Reid and I'm sure many Democrats will regret this action when the tables are turned, but at this point someone needed to hit the reset button.
For those of you in this discussion who believe in such things (and I do), if this country is going to hell in a handbasket, that just means Christ's return is more imminent due to the fulfillment of prophecy. He's the only one I really trust to heal what's wrong with us so why get so upset? When Jesus was educating His disciples on the signs of the Second Coming before He entered into Jerusalem as a mortal for the last time, He said "...see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass..." (Matt. 24:6) Over and over again he admonished those who followed Him not to be afraid.
I am not suggesting that we sit on our hands and wait for Jesus to fix all our problems. What I AM saying is that when we engage in this ridiculous political process, we do so in a spirit of faith, faith that we truly are in the Lord's hands, faith that short term frustrations are just that, faith that all things truly do work together for the good of them that love the Lord. This faith will calm the fear fueling our problems, allowing us all to pull back from the violently heated partisanship that has crippled our country. Then, at the very least, we are no longer a part of the problem and when the master of the house returns, we will be found feeding his sheep instead of beating them, verbally or otherwise.'
I really wanted to be more direct and call into question the faith of one of those commentators on my post who is a member of a certain prominent religion here in Idaho. I wanted to point out to him that all his whiny posts and comments about how hypocritical and bad the Democrats are and how unfair anyone with a "liberal agenda" is only points up his own hypocrisy. A couple weeks ago, when three LDS churches were vandalized with some really hateful graffiti, this person grumped about how it wouldn't be labeled a hate-crime, even though hate speech was used. He seemed to imply that he wasn't capable of that kind of hypocrisy. It galled me. Shouldn't a self-proclaimed follower of Jesus Christ be the first to turn the other cheek when wronged? How dare he imply that all "Liberals" were hypocrites?
I'm glad I didn't call him out on Facebook and prove him right. Allowing his public anger to beget more public anger would have only made the situation worse and is precisely the kind of thing that is tearing our nation apart. (Yes, I'm blogging about it here, but I've already claimed this soapbox as a place where I can process feelings.) It's time to choose faith over fear...and I think if I keep repeating that to myself, I'll be able to do it more consistently in all areas of my life and make my corner of the world better in the process.
